Shadow & Claw: The First Half of 'The Book of the New Sun' [Paperback]

But..... It's not an invention of the unimaginative that a book of fiction, and especially a novel, must have a plot, and a continuity. It is not an ivention of the "dumbened" by mainstream that in a work of fiction, ideas must tie into the plot. A story must have a climax, or at least if one part of it ends with a cliffhanger the next one must pick up where the previous one left off. Those are RULES OF LITERATURE, people! No matter what kind of writing you like you just can't ignore those! A work of fiction does not necessarily have to tell a story in a simple, easily understandable way, but it MUST TELL A STORY. If a work of fiction does not have a plot it is either a) not a work of fiction or, b) a rather bad work of fiction. Putting together a nice collection of interesting thoughts and colorful scenes does not turn them into a novel.

The reason I'm giving 2 stars is because the first book in this series is not bad. It creates a wild setting, interesting characters and a great premise. I swallowed the first book really quickly, and could not wait to get to the second. Unfortunately, the second book is simply horrendous. I did not mind the weird language, by the way. That's not my gripe. My gripe is that the book wanders without aim all over the place. There is simply NO PLOT, no matter which way you put it. Hey, I thought Severian was sent to this city in the north to do his guild's work there. What the heck is he doing joining a theater troupe, having sex with pretty much every female he comes across and, in general, doing things that have neither reason nor point???

Maybe I'm in fact stupid and just don't get it. This seems to be the common explanation from all the reviewers who give this book 5 stars. But, easy as it is to say, I'm yet to see at least one of them explain exactly WHAT makes this book so great. It's easy to say "this is amazing". But WHAT is so amazing? WHAT revelations are you talking about, WHAT subtleties, WHAT twists, WHAT complexities? Name just one! Then I might start believing you.

(...)

I was originally taken in by the rave reviews and even gave the first volume, Shadow of the Torturer a grudging three stars. Now that I have completed the four novels I feel cheated. The "great vocabulary" is nothing more than a device that actually tires after awhile, not because one can't understand it, but rather it becomes a gimmick.

Good writing may make a reader search for meaning, but it doesn't make a reader search for plot. And that is one of several problems with this story. I kept expecting some sort of summation, some revelation of several needlessly ambiguous plot points. But, no such luck. Fine, if you want to convince yourself that being confused by an underplotted, overwritten storyline is really being treated intelligently by the writer, then go ahead. But an final vigorous editing is what this series needed badly.

Wolfe seems to "write on the fly". In other words, something is suddenly revealed in book three about a character in book one. You're left thinking- what? He uses this technique not because he planned it or to make the story or characters deeper or for any other reason than it fits into the gimmick storyline/adventure he has thought up for Severian at that moment in his writing. To think it's more complex than that is to fool yourself.

In the end this is a tale silly beyond words. Early on the main character- Severian- actually takes part in the horrible and brutal torture of the woman he loves. Well, at least one of the women he "loves", seems Severian falls in love at the drop of a hat. Redemption here, doesn't even build up. He just announces that he won't torture/kill again after letting a "client" go. The redemption itself is a response to the terrible critical beating Wolfe took over the ammorality of Severian by several literary reviewers of that time (early eighties), not to any pre-planned story line.

The characters are basically one dimensional, with little thought to any depth except maybe only slightly Severian, who is not that likeable for that matter. At the end of book II before he meets the "rebel" commander, he needlessly kills the three guards who work for the man he supposedly admires. Then, V, after seeing the headless body of one of his men, greets Severian as....a guest. Not exactly a military leader that would inspire confidence among his soldiers.

I began to think that Urth would actually be a better place if the main character and all of his torturers guild were basically wiped off the planet and the series itself would be a much better one if the mystery of how Urth became the way it was became the main point of the story rather than a collateral one.

So, if you are impressed by little used vocabulary, consider being confused by a poor plot "intellectually challenging" and are wowed with sophmoric philisophical musings thought up by one dimensional characters, then by all means take a stab at this. Otherwise look elsewhere.